Poultry, and in particular turkeys, is typically housed for transport to processing plants in multi-layered cages, coops or containers carried by a large transport vehicle such as a flatbed trailer truck. Loading the turkeys into the coops at the farm in a systematic manner so as to avoid piling or congestion of the turkeys in the loading area and to avoid damage to the turkeys has long been a problem. Further, unloading the turkeys, for example at a processing facility, is further a problem for the same reasons.
It will be understood that while the invention hereafter is described with respect to the handling and processing of turkeys from transport trucks, the principles of this invention are not to be limited thereby. The apparatus and loading and unloading processes described in this patent and to which this invention pertain could well be applied to the unloading of other types of cargoes.
Live poultry is generally transported to modern processing plants on large flatbed truck trailers carrying the poultry in multi-layered cages or coops. A transport truck typically carries as many as 160 coops for chickens, holding approximately 13,200 chickens and as many as 120 coops for turkeys, holding approximately 1,440 turkeys. The poultry cages or coops are generally multi-level, usually six levels high for turkeys and up to 12 levels high for chickens.
The coops used for transporting turkeys are normally mounted on both sides of the transport truck trailer, with their coop doors or gates facing the outside of the trailer. The multi-level cages generally are stacked from 8-10 feet high and are built in sections of 8-16 feet long. The coops are generally about 45 inches in depth, with approximately a 6 inch ventilation air space provided between the coops down the middle of the truck. The doors of such turkey transport coops generally lift up and slide back into the coop at their tops, in an overhead door manner. Such coops are generally illustrated in my prior referenced U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,948; 5,466,116; 5,505,582; and 5,735,664. The reader is referred to such cross-referenced materials for a more detailed description of the coop and transport structures.
Loading of turkeys into the cages or coops on the transport vehicle has long been a problem. Such loading is very labor intensive, is difficult and often dangerous to the person doing the loading, is traumatic to the bird being handled, and often results in injury or damage to the bird.
Due to the large size of the turkeys, their loading has generally been performed by a turkey loading assembly and assisted by an operator; generally, a turkey is delivered to the coop, sometimes by conveyor belt, and then is loaded into the coop manually. In another loading process, the turkey is almost literally thrown into the coop by the momentum of the turkey produced by the conveyor belt.
Similarly, unloading of turkeys from the coops and into a processing facility has long been a problem for the processing industry. Such unloading is also very labor intensive, is difficult and often dangerous to the person doing the unloading, is traumatic to the bird being handled, and often results in injury or damage to the bird.
The unloading has also generally been performed or assisted by hand, wherein an unloading person or operator typically opens one coop at a time and individually removes each turkey from its transport cage, either lifting the bird into its confining shackles for processing within the plant, or placing the bird on a conveyor belt leading into the plant for subsequent anesthetizing and handling. Since Tom turkeys generally weigh between 25 and 40 pounds, the unloading task is extremely strenuous, time consuming and difficult--and the turkeys are generally uncooperative in the process. The process can also result in undesirable damage to the turkey, which is accentuated by the fact that larger turkeys are more susceptible to injury if roughly handled.
My prior patents disclosed automated techniques for unloading turkeys from the stacked coops onto conveyor belts moving into a processing plant by successively lifting the back end of the turkey coops so as to pivot the coops about their lower front edges, thereby depositing the turkeys from the tilted coop onto the adjacent conveyor belt. My prior patents also provide an automatic system that successively empties the contents from the coops on the transport truck and onto conveyor belts moving into the processing plant, without requiring the lifting or tipping of any of the coops on the truck. The apparatus and method of this referenced patent enables the transport truck to be systematically emptied by progressively removing the contents of coops, one at a time by the use of an indexing carriage and sliding floor assembly, without the necessity of any human intervention, until the truck is completely empty.
However, improvements can still be made in loading and unloading methods. The present invention provides an efficient, simplified and economical alternative to the methods disclosed in my prior applications and patents. As with my prior inventions, the moving and urging of the turkeys during the loading and unloading process is performed in a manner which is humane and non injurious or traumatic to the turkeys, thereby enhancing their carcass value significantly reducing the costly labor intensive processes typically practiced by prior art techniques.